The events in Japan reminds us of the power of nature and the limits of human's mastering nature through science and technology to increase their utility:

Despite atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the firebombing raids on other Japanese cities in 1945 and two massive natural disasters – the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and the Great Hanshin (Kobe) Earthquake of 1995 – Japan is the most technologically modern nation in the world. Its building codes and engineering prowess kept its earthquake-resistant modern buildings from collapsing.

But clearly it was not enough of a buffer against the power of the natural world. The tsunami caused widespread death and destruction, whilst explosions of smoke and steam billowed and radiation leaked from the nuclear power plants that were supposed to be disaster-proof. Natural disasters of this magnitude effect the entire surrounding region – indeed, reverberate around the world.

Those who raise the issue of limits of humans mastering nature through ingenuity and science are dismissed as cultural pessimists and anti-modernist wallowing in a culture of fatalism. They are prophets of doom.